I did have a couple of years of gamedev under the belt, but only j2me java mobile games, so laying my hands on a nintendo dev kit was one of those one in a lifetime highs for me. Still get a tingle when I think about it ☺️.
You're right about todays landscape though 😑, between abusing A to AAA companies, dark patterns and microtransactions 🤢. Such a shame. I should get into indie games more but they all feel like they were made for unity/UE, so they all feel a bit the same (where are syrategy games, spinoffs off Worms, lemmings, ...). But maybe I'm missing out, there is so much rubbish to sift through.
Cheers!